I just knew it would happen – the draw of documenting this year’s fawn lily display was too strong and I headed over to Lighthouse Park once again with a bit of time in hand so I could crawl around on wet moss and grass in my attempts to capture the perfect flower photo. Quite a few of the flowers were past their peak, and one patch in particular that I was hoping to capture had already flowered and were now well into their seed-pod phase. But I still found plenty to admire, plus I found a couple of new patches off the beaten path to carefully investigate next year.

After my recent escapades with getting flower photos I’ve decided that our next camera absolutely must have a tilting or articulating/fold-out screen. It’s simply impossible to look through a viewfinder that’s anywhere from 4 to 12 inches off the ground without getting wet, muddy, or trampling other plants. I used Live View on the SLR for framing where possible, but even then it’s hard to see a 3-inch (vertical) screen so close to the ground. Worse, the reflections off the screen make it almost impossible to see what you’re framing, what the camera’s focusing on, or what you’ve taken. So once again I ended up using the compact camera for more shots than I expected, despite it being trickier to focus correctly (by which I mean it’s harder to get it to focus on the correct subject).

But as I mentioned above, this visit had one little surprise in store for me. As I walked back to the parking lot, I noticed something pink at the far edge of a patch of false lily-of-the-valley behind a big cedar. I leaned against the split-rail fence, zoomed in, held the camera at arm’s length and took a snap just for the record. It really did seem to be the only one as I couldn’t see any other leaves. I’ll be sure to look out for that again on future visits, and, if no one’s looking, I just might hop the fence for a closer look…

I’ve been itching to get back to Lighthouse Park to photograph the fawn lilies this year, especially as some of my Instagram friends have been posting lovely fawn lily photos of their own, but I’ve been waiting for a fine day as it’s no fun trying to get flower photos when it’s dull and light levels are low. Not that it was easy taking this photo as the flowers were constantly swaying in the breeze – I had to time my shots for when a flower stopped moving for that brief moment.

This was just a quick visit to the park really for me to be able to get at least one decent photo of this year’s bloom. Of course I can’t resist going back with a little more time to take a few more…

Another Throwback Thursday, another flower 🙂 Five years ago I was attending a workshop at the Herzberg Institute for Astrophysics where I spotted some white fawn lilies decorated with raindrops. I had no choice but to walk back down the hill to take their picture…

I couldn’t resist calling into Lighthouse Park again a couple of weeks after spotting the first fawn lilies in bud. I was delighted to see that the same flower I’d photographed a couple of weeks ago was still there and now out in full bloom.

It’s a surprise to me to see the lilies blooming before the trillium: it took a few seconds of determined squinting to spot the single trillium bud poking through the soil. I’m sure they’ll catch up soon enough.

No bald eagles this week, but we did get a nice close up view of a cute little winter wren.

And then the clouds cleared as we sailed over to Bowen Island to meet up with friends, the spectacular peaks of the Howe Sound Crest Trail gleaming white against the now-blue sky.

It’s hard to get over how excited I was at seeing this two-inch-high bud of a flower, and even harder for most people to understand why. In short, I think they’re really pretty little flowers. They’re also quite uncommon in the Vancouver area, and much less common than they used to be. The fact that they are the lowland cousins of my beloved glacier lilies doesn’t hurt either 😉

Back in March 2011 I began a photo-a-day project, an undertaking that was decided pretty much at about the time I took the first picture. I was in Lighthouse Park as I’d read that these lilies bloomed in the park, and I was determined to find them. My search that day came up empty (looking back I don’t think I was being observant enough) and I ended up beginning the photo project with a photo of a trillium flower beginning to uncurl.

A year later, and as I was seeking the final photo in the project I returned to the park, exploring a few of the less-travelled trails. To my astonishment and delight, I found a small patch of these flowers in bud and set about framing the project’s parting shot. Since then I’ve returned to the park every year to seek out the flowers at their peak bloom and find more and more of them each time. Back to the photo above, and I was amazed to see them in bud this early in the season: it was a month later than this that I first saw them, and they are usually in full bloom in early April. Even better, it was right by the trail at near head-height, so all I had to do to get my shot was lean on a helpful Douglas fir root. Looking around, I could see many mottled leaves poking up through the soil – and that was all I expected to see – including another half-dozen or so buds. Spring is definitely almost here in Vancouver!

One last thing: don’t underestimate how much work it is to take a photo every day through a whole year. And beware of leap years…